


Scientifically Speaking

by FelineJaye



Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Accidental Coming Out, Gen, Trans Dipper Pines, Transphobia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-25
Updated: 2015-11-25
Packaged: 2018-05-03 07:24:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,256
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5281967
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FelineJaye/pseuds/FelineJaye
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A tumblr-Anon requested: Ford doesn't know Dipper is trans and says something careless that makes him sad, then makes it up to him somehow.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Scientifically Speaking

**Author's Note:**

> I wasn't kidding about that transphobia tag. I didn't pull punches.

The sun shone down on their books, earning an annoyed click from his Grunkle.

“Hold on, hold the book flat.”

Dipper laid the book flat on the soft grass, holding the pages open by their edges. He watched as Stanford pulled a small spray bottle from his jacket and sprayed a mysterious mist over the pages, lifting a few fingers to get Dipper to turn the pages.

“A useful little substance I invented - it forms a sun-resistant film that dries when exposed to certain levels of nitrogen. I have, of course, engineered it to react to this atmosphere’s levels, for now.” He gave Dipper a fond smile, “We don’t want the information in here to get sun damaged, after all.”

Dipper grinned back, equal parts nervous and excited. That was how it always was around Grunkle Ford - fluctuating levels of either excitement or nervousness. That, and more affection that was probably strictly necessary.

The books now mostly sun-proofed, they returned to reading, occasionally breaching the comfortable silence to rattle off an energetic theory or to half mumble inconsistencies. A shadow cast over Dipper’s book, brown hair soon swinging into view.

“Hey bro-bro!” Mabel grinned down at him as he lifted his head and shielded his view from the sun.

“Hey Mabel. What’s up?”

She took this as an invitation to drop down next to him, mimicking his laying-belly-down position. She dropped a magazine on top of his book, the magazine open to multi-page article.

“Check it out! Cool, right? I know there was all those ladies coming out recently but look, look!”

She pointed excited to one of the pictures; that of a smiling man with goatee-like facial hair. The article boasted the headline “ _Finally Me! Celebrities talk about their experience with gender_ ”. Mabel remained pointing, her smile growing wider and wider. If only to stop her upcoming facial-cramp, Dipper smiled back. She took this as an invitation to flop down next to him, mimicking his posture of laying on their front to read.

With a glance at Grunkle Ford (absorbed in his own, larger, tome) he decided it couldn’t hurt to take a break. Together the youngest mystery twins poured over the article, flipping between the first two and the last two pages to re-read and compare various paragraphs. Dipper could feel his cheeks almost hurting from how much he was smiling while reading - for her part, Mabel couldn’t stop affectionately either punching or hugging him. Of course she’d bring him something like this - probably after having read it back-to-front to make sure it was actually positivity and not ‘freak-show’-ivity.

Going back to re-read the first page for the  _N_ th time, a shadow fell over the magazine. The twins looked up to see Ford’s thoughtfully-frowning face looking down at them. Or rather, looking down at the magazine. He gave a non-committal grunt and Dipper glupped, suddenly nervous about reading the article outside and in public. Mabel seemed to have the opposite feeling to him, however, as she shot him a side-long grin before jumping up, magazine in hand still folded open to the relevant article.

“Isn’t it cool, Grunkle Ford? Look how happy they are!” she turned to the article and reverently stroked one of the photos, “Look how pretty she is~”

Dipper jumped up beside her, not sure what action he wanted to take but vaguely feeling like he should stop this exchange. He looked between his two relatives, Mabel still stroking the photo and Grunkle Ford opening his mouth to speak- Dipper’s head whipped back around to his grunkle, paling slightly.

“But are they really happy? I just don’t understand why people would put themselves through all that.”

Both twins seemed to still in unison. Mabel eyed their grunkle and warily spoke;

“What do you mean 'put themselves through all that’?”

Ford had turned away, returning to whatever he’d been doing, and waved his hand dismissively in the air as he explained.

“Trying to be something they’re not.”

Mabel attempted to interrupt, knowing exactly where this was going, but her nervous protest was drowned out as their elder continued.

“I mean, biologically, they can’t change what they’re born as. It doesn’t matter how they cut their hair or what kind of mutilative surgery they get, they’ll still be the same sex they were born as. It’s just scientific fact. And pretending otherwise like that is, well, ah-hah, quite the developed delusion.”

Silence met the statement, and Ford turned to face the two small twins. Mabel stood with her legs parted in a strong pose, her hands balled into fists and righteous fury shaking every atom of her body. Dipper seemed to be curled in on himself, the brim of his hat covering his face and his shoulders shaking slightly.

Mabel exploded with action; “That’s not true  **at all**! Trans people aren’t- sex and gender aren’t even the same thing! It’s-”

“No, he’s right, Mabel.” Dipper stood, staring at the ground, pulling down the sides of his hat, wishing he could disappear, “It’s just pretend, right? I- I mean scientif-tif-tifically…” He gave a loud sniff before turning around and racing back towards the Mystery Shack.

“No! Dipper!” Mabel took off after him, shouting out along the way, “Dipper! Bro-bro! Best brother ever! Manly Dipper dude!”

Stanford watch them leave, blinking, as a realisation dawned on him.

* * *

He stood outside the attic room, hand on the doorknob. With an internal jolt, he realised that just inviting himself in might not be the best idea. It was strange to him, to have to knock on any of the doors. This was his house, after all, why should he seek permission to enter any part of it? But he had guests for the moment, guests who he was slowly becoming fond of and guests whom he’d rather gravely offended.

He pulled his hand back and lifted it a little, knocking on the bedroom door instead. There was sound from inside and he was soon greeted with Mabel’s happy face. Her face stopped being so happy once she registered whom he was. She hastily pushed him back and closed the door behind her. She paused, glancing between him and the door and then pushed him back a little further before poking an insistent finger into his chest.

“You’re not allowed anywhere near him! You know for a genius you’re actually really stupid you- you- you butthole!”

Ford held up his hands in surrender and peace. Mabel continued to frown suspiciously, but let him speak.

“I know. I… obviously touched a nerve yesterday. I didn’t realise that… uh… that Dipper-”

“That shouldn’t matter! I mean, yeah, of course it’s way extra terrible that you said it right in front of him. But that  **shouldn’t matter**. You shouldn’t say stuff like that any way because you should be a  **decent person**.” She folded her arms, “Urgh, maybe Grunkle Stan was right about you.”

That, more than anything, cut right through to him. If Ford had been indecisive about what he was about to ask, he wasn’t any more. Trying not to frown, he asked;

“And I want to be. I clearly have a… a rather large gap in my knowledge. I wanted to ask Dipper about it - about, uh, being a transgender.”

“ _'About being transgender’_  not being 'a’ transgender, geez, Grunkle Ford how can I let you go ask my brother Twenty Questions when you’re saying stuff like that?”

“Well, then, could I ask you?”

Shock coloured her eyes and Mabel nervously looked back at the bedroom door. She chewed her lip as she thought. After a few moments, she warily looked up at him.

“You really wanna learn? You’re not just gonna tell me I’m 'too young’ or that I don’t know what I’m talking about or why,  **scientifically** , I’m wrong?”

“I really, honestly just wish to learn. I can’t promise I won’t say some stupid things, but I want to be corrected on them.”

Mabel scrunched up her mouth and studied his face before finally sighing.

“Okay. Gimme a second - this is gonna take a while.”

* * *

They stood face-to-face but a few feet apart and equally nervous. Dipper subconsciously refused to make eye contact. It was not making Ford any more comfortable with this whole scenario. Both wished they hadn’t let Mabel talk them into this - Ford was sure there was a less awkward way to do this and Dipper just didn’t want to be there at all.

Dipper’s nervousness was very understandable. He used to look up to Ford - he  **still**  looked up to Ford. And knowing that he was so unapologetically transphobic wasn’t a fun thought. Not only did it make him feel torn between liking and hating him it also made him feel… Well it made him feel unsafe in a way he hadn’t felt since coming to Gravity Falls.

He kept scolding himself, telling himself that it was about time someone was like this. Soos had accepted it, he had no idea if Wendy knew but if she did she didn’t care and even Grunkle Stan was supportive in his own way. Not even enemies had ever used it against him. Of course it would be just his luck that the one person who had a problem with it was also the one person he most admired.

Stanford was having a very different issue. He was very unused to apologising. Even when he was technically wrong - which he considered to be rare - he usually managed to get out of actually apologising. He just wasn’t actually, properly wrong. Ever.So why should he apologise for anything?

But this was one of those blue moons where he was wrong. He had to be wrong because if he was right… He knew he could stubbornly remain right. But if he did he’d loose what little family he’d been gifted with, he’d prove Stanley right about all the bad things he said and… Well, the kind of person being 'right’ would make him was not the kind of person he wanted to be. He wanted to be wrong and re-educated in this case. Screwing up his motivation, he blurted it out.

“I’m sorry.”

Dipper, for the first time, made eye-contact.

“I’m sorry for what I said the other day. I didn’t real-” remembering one of Mabel’s lessons, he amended himself, “It was, it was tactless. And. And I was wrong. I hadn’t ever learnt about…  **that**  before. So I only had misinformation to build conclusions out of. So, obviously, those conclusions where wrong. And… and I’m sorry I hurt you, while saying those incorrect conclusions.”

They stared at each other, Dipper still and Ford fidgeting.

“Do you… forgive me?”

Dipper rubbed the back of his neck; “I… I don’t know. I mean! I really want to, you know? But what you said… Grunkle Ford… I say stuff like that to myself  **all of the time**. It’s really hard to tell myself that I’m real and valid and that I’m not just pretending. So when you said all that…”

“I know - any argument a transgender person hears is one they’ve probably already told them-”

“Yeah but you don’t know how it  **feels**. How it feels to struggle with it and to go back and forth. And. Just.” he sighed, “Look I guess I’m just saying that - it still hurts. Thanks for apologising but that doesn’t make the hurt just go away.” he dropped his gaze to his shoes, “Sorry.”

“You’ve nothing to be sorry for. I - I think I understand. I, uh, I was trying to think of what I could do for you, actually. Mabel said your parents are at least complacently alright with it, now, so I don’t need to give them stern words or anything but, well I thought. I mean, you’ll be going through puberty soon. I don’t know if you’ve talked to anyone about it but, if you’re having any trouble with the medical side of being transgender - if! If that’s a side you want to be involved with at all, of course! Ah,”

Ford looked away, a little dishevelled. Dipper watched him, somewhat disbelieving at where this train of thought was going.

“What I’m trying to say is: if you’re having trouble getting hormone blockers or getting testosterone or anything like that. I have, like, twelve PhDs. I can sort it out for you. If you’d like.”

“Re-really?”

“Yes, really. It’s the least I can do.”

After a silent pause, Ford mustered the courage to look back at his favourite mystery twin.

Dipper was beaming and crying.

Panic struck across Ford’s face, unsure at what was happening. But Dipper just kept smiling and crying until he was laughing instead. The young boy held his middle as he folded over with somewhat-manic laughter. The door burst open, revealing a sudden Mabel. She shot each of them a look, but at seeing her brother crying she lit up. She popped up in front of him, asking over and over what Ford said.

“He’s going to make me blockers! And- and- and all that stuff! He’s gonna help!”

The twins grabbed each others hands and started jumping up and down, now both laughing.

“Mabel what did you  **say**  to him? This is amazing! This is amazing!”

Mabel didn’t answer except to laugh even harder.

Stanford just watched the display of joy, glad to have had some small part in it. he knew not everything was fixed - it wouldn’t be like how it used to be. But, at least, he’d seemed to make some small amends.

**Author's Note:**

> Personally, I don't see how someone can actually 'make up' for being transphobic, especially right to a trans/enby person's face. But I figure offers of help are pretty good olive branches.


End file.
